Pranked nurse's body arrives in India

Amrit Dhillon, Mangalore

THE body of British nurse Jacintha Saldanha, who committed suicide after taking a hoax call from two Australian DJs, arrived in her home town of Mangalore, south-west India, on Saturday.

Ms Saldanha's husband Benedict Barboza and their two children - son Junal, 17, and daughter Lisha, 14 - arrived on the same flight and drove with the body to a hospital morgue close to the tiny town of Shirva, where Mr Barboza's family live.

The nurse was found dead 11 days ago after being duped by a prank call from two Australian radio DJs when the Duchess of Cambridge was being treated for morning sickness at King Edward VII's Hospital in London.

Believing the callers were the Queen and the Prince of Wales, Ms Saldanha transferred the call to a colleague who divulged details of the Duchess' condition.

Ms Saldanha was a devout Catholic and her funeral will be a traditional Catholic service at the Church of Our Lady of Health in Shirva. The Catholic community here, which dates back to the arrival of the Portuguese on India's west coast in the 16th century, is close-knit and very devout.

Ms Saldanha grew up in Valencia, a predominantly Catholic suburb of Mangalore with numerous convents, churches, shelters for the destitute, charitable hospitals run by the church and seminaries.

''Her remains will first be taken to the family home at Shirva to be blessed and then to the church,'' said the parish priest, Father Stany Tauro.